Danish Pulses Meal Study

Summary

The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether daily intake of lactic acid bacteria fermented or unfermented legumes can improve metabolic and gut health in healthy adults.

The main questions it aims to answer are:

* Does eating 100 g per day of legumes for 2 weeks lower blood glucose, measured primarily by continuous glucose monitoring, compared with a control period of habitual diet?
* Does eating 100 g per day of legumes for 2 weeks improve inflammation, cholesterol, gut microbiome composition, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) levels, and do fermented legumes have additional effects on body composition compared with unfermented legumes? Researchers will compare participants consuming LAB-fermented legumes with participants consuming unfermented legumes to see if fermented legumes produce greater health benefits, particularly for body composition and other metabolic outcomes.

Participants will:

* Follow their habitual diet for 14 days during a control period.
* Complete baseline measurements after the control period.
* Be randomly assigned to consume 100 g per day of either LAB-fermented or unfermented legumes for 14 days.
* Eat the provided standardized legume foods as part of their usual meals.
* Undergo continuous glucose monitoring and other assessments, incl. inflammation, cholesterol, long-term blood glucose, blood pressure, body composition, fecal microbiome, dietary intake, and digestive symptoms.

Conditions

• LAB Fermentation in Pulses

Interventions

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Pulses meal study

The participants are randomly assigned to two experimental groups based on a randomized trial design: two weeks of habitual dietary intake (control period) followed by the second intervention period lasts from day 14 to day 28, during which participants will be instructed to consume 100 g of lactic acid fermented pulses every day, seven days a week, for two weeks. Fermented pulses will be provided and packed as standardized food items to their habitual meals e.g. as hummus, or pasta with legume flour, adding up to 100 g of legumes per day. These test foods can be eaten throughout the day; however, intake of other legumes, except those included in the foods, should be avoided.

DIETARY_SUPPLEMENT

Pulses Meal Study

The participants are randomly assigned to two experimental groups based on a randomized trial design: two weeks of habitual dietary intake (control period) followed by the second intervention period lasts from day 14 to day 28, during which participants will be instructed to consume 100 g of unfermented pulses every day, seven days a week, for two weeks. The unfermented pulses will be provided and packed as standardized food items to their habitual meals e.g. as hummus, or pasta with legume flour, adding up to 100 g of legumes per day. These test foods can be eaten throughout the day; however, intake of other legumes, except those included in the foods, should be avoided.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University College Absalon

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Margit Dall Aaslyng, PhD · University College Absalon

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

18 Years

Max Age

60 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2026-09-10

Primary Completion

2026-12-31

Completion

2028-12-31

Countries

• Denmark

Study Locations